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Buckie Rovers to bow out of league for a year after surprise announcement


By Alan Beresford

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A LACK of committee members, Covid restrictions and uncertainty over the restart of league football has seen Buckie Rovers take a year out from north Junior football.

There will be no league football action at Merson Park until 2021 after Buckie Rovers were forced to declare a season in abeyance. Picture: Daniel Forsyth
There will be no league football action at Merson Park until 2021 after Buckie Rovers were forced to declare a season in abeyance. Picture: Daniel Forsyth

The Merson Park committee made the tough decision to take a season in abeyance, meaning that they will not recommence action until season 2021-22.

Club president Grant Sutherland posted the sad news on Rovers' Facebook page last Thursday after talks with the North Region SJFA

Sutherland stressed that it was not an easy move for the remaining committee members to make but they were left with little choice.

He said: "This is not something that we wanted to do and it was a tough call to make as it leaves a cracking squad of players without a team.

"The Covid restrictions has not helped matters and has affected the whole community, but the main reason is due to insufficient committee members.

"Over the years we have been fortunate to have a good, hard working committee in place who have all played a fantastic part in the running and upkeep of the club. However, due to various reasons of age,health and family commitments we have dwindled down to only one remaining member.

"The last three years AGMs has not attracted any new committee members and in the past few months our plea in the local paper and Facebook page for help unfortunately has not had any response.The club simply cannot run without a proper committee in place.

"As things stand there is no guarantee when the Junior league will resume, if it even starts at all.

"Let's hope next season we can get some new members involved and get the club back into the Junior league where it belongs."

Sutherland went on to express his profound thanks to all who have served the club over the years in a number of different roles, including the players and supporters, with a special mention going honorary club member and "superfan" Allan Fraser.

He went on to say that the Rovers Facebook page would be kept running so fans could keep abreast of updates and developments affecting the club and also for correspondence.

Rovers had finished eighth in the McBookie.com Division 1 table after the season was declared null and void earlier this year. As with the rest of Scottish football, league action was brought to a halt to try and contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in March.

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